Doing my first ever Christmas dinner this year, will have people over for most of the day and could do with some help and advice please!

I am doing a traditional dinner (turkey, pigs in blankets etc) and am relatively confident at pulling everything together but having never done anything like this before (on this scale) I would appreciate your ideas, tips, suggestions for accompaniments etc (such as what are the best potatoes to use for roasties) as well as ideas for snack food, drinks etc for the duration of the day.

Ta 🙂

prepare the day before!!!!!

Veg peeled, in pans ready to go on…..pre-boil your spuds the day before *(no, the potatoes, not your pedals) basically, do as much as you can and leave as little as possible for the day!!

As morgs says plus start early on Xmas day, get the bird on the go.
Microwave the Xmas pud, steaming is such a faff.
Never too early for a sherry – very important.

Youtube – Jamie’s family Christmas, not all of it is what you want but loads of it is. Loads done in the days before makes for a lot less hassle on the day and you may even get to enjoy the day 🙂

Good luck.

make sure it all fits in the oven. nothing worse than abandoning something cos there is no room!

morgs +1 prepare as much in advance as possible

Nibbles

Vol au vents with a bacon and mushroom stuffing are good (make the stuffing before and then fill and heat cases on the day). The stuffing my mum makes is briliant on baked potatoes too so she normally makes a big batch and we have that for dinner on the 27th.

Baked camembert with crispy bits of bread to dip in it and cranbery sauce is good too and also dead easy to do on the day if you have the bread prepared in advance.

The main thing is just being organised in terms of preparation and timings for when everything needs to go in/come out/be rested/warmed up etc etc

Which my GF is very good at having been a cook for a living 🙂

Thanks for the help so far 🙂

Yes I will prepare as much as I can the day before and I will be getting the kids up early anyway (it will be the first Christmas they understand enough to start getting excited about which equally excites me), I have a decent sized hob, a vegetable steamer and access to a heated hostess trolley to put things in as I go along. The way I see it going, the bird will be taken from the oven and rested for 45 minutes before serving in which time I can chuck all the things in the oven that need to be oven cooked (roasties, Yorkshire puds, creamed leaks etc) so even though I do only have a small oven, I *think* we should be fine…

So what food needs to go on the plate?

Turkey
Roasties
Yorkshire puds
Carrots, Peas, Sweetcorn (for the kids)
Creamed leaks
Cranberry sauce
Homemade gravy

This thread is making me hungry!!

Mash?
Stuffing?
Bread sauce?

Crackers (must have shit jokes in them)

Get as much ready beforehand, work out timings of when to put everything on/take them out/off (and check you don’t need 10 hands at any one time!)

Ohh yes – I have dauphenoise (sp?) potatoes on my list as well as chestnut stuffing.

Bread sauce- Hmm, not thought about that one as I never eat that.

Chipolata’s?
Brussel Sprouts?

I write a timing list so that everying comes at once. Nowt worse than the gravy arriving before the bird is ready.

cooking the turkey…

video

http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall/stuffed-roast-turkey-breast-recipe

You don’t have to follow his recipe but I do believe in cooking the differing parts seperately.

Don’t have a vegetarian mother in law coming to stay! 👿

Chipolata’s?
Brussel Sprouts?

Doing pigs in blankets 8)

Hmm, sprouts – I guess I should do some. Cooked with bacon goujons then.

I think I will need to start on 23rd December…

Don’t have a vegetarian mother in law coming to stay!

I have a mother-in-law coming, Fortunately she likes meat.

Fnarr

Honey roast the carrots and parsnip
Goose fat for the roast spuds
Fry the sprouts with some lardons
Let everyone serve themselves at the table instead of plating up for them
Remember to warm the plates.
Have all the crockery ready for the next course.
Have someone help washup as you go along as no doubt you’ll need to reuse some items and you won’t have time to clean them yourself.

Bump for today’s crowd – anyone have anything else to suggest?

Pavlova ?? Its quite high on technical difficulty, but always impresses. Kiwifruit or strawberries on top, and whipped cream. (although my mother always makes it with half cream and half unadorned for us anti dairy types)

She says the key is to keep the eggs at room temperature for a couple of days before you make it.

Use of a second fridge. Leftovers etc in kitchen fridge, beer wine and other drinks in second one. Freecycle is your friend for this. If you have any veggies arriving their main dish can be made before hand and frozen for a reheat. If you steam the pud the veg can be done over top of this to save a ring on the stove!

Use of a second fridge.

Yes this one had crossed my mind – the in-laws have several fridges (they are in the lucky position of having room to store them all and he is a compulsive hoarder). I might get one from them when I collect the above-mentioned hostess trolley.

Go onto the Waitrose website and look at all Heston’s Xmas menu stuff.

The brussels are to die for.

Mwah x

I’d leave out the Yorkshire puds – loads going on in that oven already, and they’re not really a trad part of a Christmas dinner.

My one piece of advice based on experience is to get the roasties in early – I’ve been ready to go with everything but those awkward buggers a couple of times. If they start to look done a bit early you can always pull them out for a while then bang them in again at the end.

I take it you’ll have some gravy?

Good- make sure you dont do what my dad did one year.
DO NOT decide to de scale the kettle on Christmas Eve, then forget about it. If you do make sure you TELL SOMEONE.

De scaler in your gravy is going to make you puke!

Ditch the turkey, get a goose.

FFS it is only the start of November, calm down and worry about it in a few weeks time!

Trust me:
http://www.potatolovers.co.uk/content/recipes/info/?id=70

FFS it is only the start of November, calm down and worry about it in a few weeks time!

😆

Do start saving up for it though- by the sounds of it, it going to costa fortuna…

I’d leave out the Yorkshire puds

Blasphemer…burn him!

On a pracical note, this year we are doing Xmas dinner from Aldi. Their turkey crown, roasties in goose fat and other sunday roast stuff is amazingly good quality. Makes life much easier and is every bit as good as most homemade stuff (certainly as good as I can do from scratch). Only thing I really make properly is the gravy.

The best advice here is to make a timing list, I was taught this many moon ago when I worked as a chef and it is a lifesaver.

Work out when you want things to be done by and work backwards. Remember that something can be served warm, other need to be piping hot straight out of the oven. This can buy you a bit of time if needed.

Prep as much as poss the night before, you can chop veg, wrap the pigs in blankets, make the stuffing, etc. If you want to do a starter then In would suggest a cold starter than can be done in advance as well, my mother-in-law always does a salmon mousse with crusty bread, which can be done in the days before.

Keeping the kitchen tidy helps me as well, I try to wash things as I’m going along, you can’t do everything but you can do a lot.

And finally, make sure you wear a chefs hat and apron, you will feel the part and it will give your loved ones something to laugh at.

I’d leave out the Yorkshire puds – loads going on in that oven already, and they’re not really a trad part of a Christmas dinner.

I am Yorkshire-born, Yorkshire brought up and still live in Yorkshire. They are very traditional!

I am Yorkshire-born, Yorkshire brought up and still live in Yorkshire

OK, if you’re that Yorkshire then how come you know where the cooker is?

Can’t have it both ways…

start practising and then you will know your timings 💡

OK, if you’re that Yorkshire then how come you know where the cooker is?

Can’t have it both ways…

😆

– Sprouts with smoked bacon lardons (of just diced)

– Potato dauphinois (get this right and it’s proper nom nom – and works fine alongside

– Stuffing (get sausage meat from butcher (or remove from good quality sausages) and mix with diced onion/herbs/seasoning/breadcrumbs and anything else that takes your fancy, e.g. dried apricots, nuts etc)

I’ve cooked Christmas dinner for my lot (usually about 12 of us but has been 16 in the past) most years for the last 10.

Clear as much stuff out of your fridge in the week before as you can, its amazing how much space it’ll all take.

Unless you have an Aga or access to another oven, then I think by far and away the most important thing you can have is an oven timetable, written down so you know what has to go in when and that it will all fit. Makes the whole thing much simpler. Project management!

Do as much of the prep work (vegetables, potatoes etc – get them peeled and chopped and stored in a bucket of water) as you can in advance, the day before ideally. That’s the grim stuff, get it out the way.

Make it a team effort – what we usually do is get other family members to bring a starter or a dessert – gets the grans involved and its less to do. We get everyone who’s drinking to give us a tenner or something in advance then go to Majestic or somewhere to buy a load of decent wine and beer so it doesn’t end up costing us quite as much.

This year we’re all going away to a couple of island cottages rather than buying presents for adults. The kitchen looks ace, I can’t wait!